Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Lego A/S, Europe’s biggest toymaker,
plans to expand its sales in China as rising income boosts
demand for its building-blocks in the world’s most-populous
nation.

Lego is building manufacturing facilities in China to serve
both the country and across Asia, Chief Executive Officer
Joergen Vig Knudstorp said yesterday. The region contributes
about 10 percent of revenue, he said.

“Asia is not a supply base, it’s a market and a growing
market,” Knudstorp said in a Bloomberg television interview
with Haslinda Amin in Singapore. “The urbanization where 500
million people are going to become members of a middle class
that will look to great schools, great infrastructure but also
play as an important part of childhood.”

The closely held company is seeking to boost sales as the
world’s second-largest economy is expected to expand 7.6 percent
this year, according to the Asian Development Bank’s forecast
yesterday. By 2022, more than 75 percent of the country’s urban
consumers will earn 60,000 yuan ($9,800) to 229,000 yuan a year,
Mckinsey & Co. said in June.

Billund, Denmark-based Lego plans to increase its business
in parts of Asia, as well as in Africa and Latin America, which
will offer “huge growth potential” in the future, Knudstorp
said.

The company wants the Europe, Africa, and Middle East
region, Asia and the Americas to contribute equally to sales
over time, he said, without being more specific.

Sales Jump

Lego said last month its first-half sales jumped 13 percent
with the strongest growth in Asia amid a slower start to 2013 in
the toy markets of North America and Europe. Revenue rose to
10.4 billion kroner ($1.9 billion) from 9.13 billion kroner in
the same period a year earlier.

Lego, which is closely held, said it boosted its global
market share to 8.8 percent in the first half from 8.6 percent
at the end of last year. The company is controlled by Denmark’s
richest man Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the grandson of Lego founder
Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who has a net worth of $6.8 billion,
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“We are on a journey of major expansion where over the
next 5 to 10 years, the major growth driver is going to be the
Asia region,” Knudstorp said.